Both characters — as well as several other minor roles — are voiced by Larry Murphy, a protean, preternaturally gifted voice actor from Abington.

Further cementing the show’s uniquely New England–bent vision is Worcester’s own H. Jon Benjamin, who plays Exeter’s corrupt and buffoonish mayor. Benjamin is best known, among many other projects, for his work on Dr. Katz and his radio comedy with WFMU’s Tom Scharpling.

The show’s New England accent is something its creators explicitly sought out. Assy’s sultry sax intro comes courtesy of Morphine’s Dana Colley. Guest voices this coming season will include the guys from Dropkick Murphys and SNL alum Rachel Dratch, a native of Lexington.

And even though the city of Boston probably permanently reduced its coolness quotient thanks to the Mooninite madness of January 2007 — after which Turner Broadcasting was compelled to fork over $2 million to reimburse the city for its overreaction — Assy McGees’s Masshole sensibility sits just fine with the higher-ups at Adult Swim.

Clambake Animation is a production company with strong local roots — and one that intends to keep celebrating them. Adams says the hope is to do “more stuff about New England,” celebrating “culty” local institutions like Jordan’s Furniture and Herb Chambers.

In the meantime, Clambake animators will keep churning out their flagship show about a talking ass. And they’ll keep running up against the geographical insularity of studio people in New York and LA. Adams recalls a conversation he had not long ago with an exec in Manhattan.

Madcap laffs Come with us now, on a journey through time and space to the world of the Mighty Boosh.

Review: A Town Called Panic This stop-motion comedy from Belgian filmmakers Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar is the anti– Fantastic Mr. Fox — its lack of visual and psychological nuance is, merci, quite deliberate.

Review: A Town Called Panic (2010) It is, indeed, a golden age for animation, where silent montages can wrenchingly portray a lifelong bond (in Pete Docter's Up ), or a band of stop-motion foxes can act out complex and angsty family dynamics (Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox ), or a child's imaginary world is realized with vivid detail (Henry Selick's Coraline ).

Down the Tubes Midsummer television has a terrific offering of new and returning shows about aliens, firefighters, crystal meth, and more to turn that beautiful brain of yours to Play-Doh and keep you thoroughly entertained.

Lynn, Lynn, City of Adult Swim In an apartment-complex lobby with an ambiance I can only describe as medicinal, I counted 10 cartoon connoisseurs from far and wide fixated on a stripteaser.

Otaku you In the 1980s, while Americans were worrying about losing dominance in the automobile industry, Japan was taking over the animation business.

Drive free or die Reporter Mark Leibovich offered a parenthetical aside on a brush with former Massachusetts governor and would-be president Mitt Romney’s security detail.

Power hungry? It’s remarkable how dramatically the state’s political leadership has changed since the most recent Constitutional Convention.

Question 2 backlash heats up Since Question 2 was activated on January 2, it's been difficult to walk the streets of Massachusetts without encountering red-eyed hordes of marijuana-blazing vagrants.

INSIDE THE TEDXDIRIGO CONFERENCE | September 14, 2011 I arrived at TEDxDirigo on September 10 feeling rather less than confident about the state of world. The tenth anniversary of 9/11 — and the awful decade that unspooled from that sky-blue morning — was on my mind.